The Motion Picture Association on Friday called on ByteDance to stop copyright infringement on its AI platform SeaDance 2.0, saying the Chinese company’s guarantees were not sufficient.
MPA, on behalf of seven of its members, sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance’s Culver City, Calif. office, demanding that the studio cease training on film and television programs and that safeguards be put in place to prevent users from producing copyrighted material.
On February 12, MPA launched an industry protest against Seedance 2.0 and issued a statement calling on ByteDance to immediately stop the infringement. Six of the seven member studios subsequently sent cease and desist letters to ByteDance.
ByteDance, which also owns TikTok, responded with a two-sentence statement saying it respects copyright protection and will take steps to strengthen existing protections.
MPA General Counsel Karin Temple said in a letter Friday that the industry needs “much more than a general statement.”
“Our ongoing investigations and reviews of social media platforms continue to uncover instances in which Seadance is producing material that clearly violates the rights of our members,” she wrote.
The fight over Seedance 2.0 has united studios in a way no previous AI disputes have. Disney and Universal have been the most aggressive of the studios in protecting their iconic characters from unauthorized use, filing the first major lawsuit against Midjourney last year.
Although still limited to short clips, the Seedance platform represents a major technological advance, combining audio and images to provide a more cinematic look to live-action sequences. Sony, Netflix, and Paramount, which were not part of the initial fight, also joined the protests.
ByteDance could follow the lead of OpenAI, which placed significant guardrails on Sora 2 last fall following similar protests and subsequently partnered with Disney. If they do not, studios and MPAs may face the challenges and delays unique to suing a company based in China.
The MPA’s letter cites Seadance videos featuring characters such as Shrek, SpongeBob SquarePants, Darth Vader and Deadpool, as well as videos based on “Stranger Things.”
“The scale and consistency of these results indicate a systematic, rather than inadvertent, breach,” Temple wrote. “In other words, Seadance piracy is a feature, not a bug.”
The letter asks for a response by February 27 to “confirm the specific steps ByteDance has taken to address this.”
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The letter also cited an X post from a user that included an AI-generated Spider-Man fight sequence.
“The best part about Seedance 2.0 is that users can create amazing things like this without worrying about copyright laws,” the user wrote. “This is perfect for IP distribution.”
